The solidarity of discredited figures from the international left aligns with the dictatorship and its lack of response to the productive collapse and the hardship imposed on the population.
14ymedio, March 21, 2026, Havana / Havana once again staged one of those events this Friday in which official rhetoric tries to prevail over a crisis that is already difficult to conceal. Miguel Díaz-Canel received at the Convention Palace the members of the Nuestra América Convoy, an international solidarity initiative that brings humanitarian aid to Cuba and that the Government has presented as proof of political backing amid the tightening of United States sanctions.
The event, laden with slogans, expressions of gratitude, and references to the “blockade,”* served the authorities to project an image of resistance and international support. But it also made clear the extent to which the country today depends on external aid to alleviate basic shortages, despite having presented itself for decades as a moral, medical, and political power of the continent. With an unproductive economy in ruins, the Island once again needs food, medicines, hygiene products, and solar panels arriving from abroad to meet urgent needs.
The arrival of the convoy, promoted by civil organizations and left-wing platforms such as the Progressive International, has been presented as a response to the economic and energy siege imposed by Washington. The Cuban Government has clung to that narrative to insist that the crisis the Island is experiencing is almost exclusively the result of the U.S. embargo*. However, the constant use of that argument contrasts with the lack of deep reforms and the persistence of internal obstacles that continue to limit economic development and hold back emerging sectors, such as small and medium-sized private enterprises.
Pablo Iglesias’s assessment came after listening in Havana almost exclusively to Communist Party leaders and without having set foot on the capital’s streets
Fernando González Llort, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), was one of those tasked with opening the round of speeches. He spoke of “decency, morality, and dignity,” and asserted that the convoy is making history for Cuba and for the world. According to him, about 650 visitors from 33 countries and more than 140 social, cultural, and political organizations have joined the initiative.
International support was, indeed, the focus of the day. From Uruguay, the president of the Broad Front, Fernando Pereira, condemned U.S. interference in Latin America and defended leftist internationalism. Medea Benjamin, American co-founder of Code Pink, said that Washington’s policy toward Cuba is “cruel and inhumane” and asserted that this stance does not represent all the people of the United States. The leader of the British left, Jeremy Corbyn, for his part called on Europe to take a firmer position against the oil blockade and maintained that there is no legal basis in international law that justifies the sanctions.
Pablo Iglesias, former vice president of the Spanish Government and founder of the Podemos political party, stated on El Tablero that the situation in Cuba is not as “it is being presented from outside.” His assessment came after listening in Havana almost exclusively to Communist Party leaders and without having set foot on the capital’s streets. He also said he was surprised by the following of Canal Red, his online television program, on the Island, although the example he gave was that of a Cuban woman residing in Germany for ten years.
The invited voices agreed on one idea: Cuba is not alone. However, that international support, staged alongside the ruling leadership, contrasts with the daily experience of millions of Cubans, marked by blackouts, shortages, high prices, lack of medicines, and the absence of effective channels to demand change. The event projected an image of political support for the Government but left out that other Cuba that survives amid deterioration and increasingly expresses its discontent.
A convoy does not change the structural deterioration of an economy that neither produces, exports, or pays its workers decently
In parallel with the political event in Havana, the material side of the initiative was advancing from Mexico. According to EFE, a first vessel departed from Puerto Progreso, in Yucatán, with about 30 tons of aid destined for Cuba. Two other smaller vessels, planned from Isla Mujeres, had to delay their departure due to bad weather. The maritime coordinator of the operation, Adnaan Stumo, explained that the change in wind direction and intermittent rains forced the postponement of the vessel’s departure, which would transport an additional three to four tons.
The cargo includes food, medicines, hygiene products, and solar panels. It is not insignificant, but it is not enough to alter the magnitude of the Cuban crisis. That a solidarity convoy brings 20 or 30 tons of aid has considerable political and symbolic weight, but it does not change the structural deterioration of an economy that neither produces, exports, or pay its workers decently, and also fails to guarantee essential services to its citizens.
Díaz-Canel, faithful to the official script, took advantage of the stage to insist that Cuba is facing a “fourth-generation war,” an offensive of disinformation aimed at breaking the country’s ties with its historical and cultural roots. He also rejected that the Revolution came to power illegitimately, denied that Cuba is a terrorist state, and maintained that the greatest human rights violation against Cubans is the embargo.
*Translator’s note: There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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